Swamped By Wave Of The Future

February 28, 1985|By Sam Dalton Jr.

When I was in high school in the early `70s, the prevailing wisdom was that computers would increase in importance in our daily lives. The smart bet, it was advised, would be to prepare for a career in computer science or to at least develop some familiarity with data-processing.

I resisted this sagacious advice. Struggling through a computer math course, I was hopelessly pondering READ/WRITE statements. Wave of the future? Not for me, I would adamantly state to my classroom peers. I completed the course (barely) and blithely said goodbye to computers and prepared to study the social sciences I loved--history and political science.

During my college years, I held tenaciously to my position, majored in history, and avoided any data processing-oriented coursework. I reveled in the interplay of historical forces and ignored the harbingers of future ones.

It began in graduate school. While working on an MA in political science, I was told that to complete my degree I must show a competency in, of all things, computers. Political science had branched out into the fields of quantitative analysis, statistics and data processing. I began to feel uneasy. I comforted myself in the fact that at least I did not have to use a computer at my employment, only to have my boss install a terminal on my desk. The wave of the future, he said.

This, I thought, was not a good sign. My wife began hinting how nice it would be to purchase a personal computer for home finances, recipe files and to catalogue my book collection. It`s the wave of the future, she offered.

Well, I am learning to accept the fact that I am personally going to be inextricably linked with some product from IBM. It`s predestined, I swear it. Last July I was promoted to a new position at my firm. The new job? Computer operator, of course!

Believe it or not, I like the new job. My earlier disdain for data processing has disappeared and I have learned a good deal about how computers work. But it is comforting to know that the Roman Empire lasted nearly a thousand years without the assistance of a single computer.